John E. Wool

John Ellis Wool (20 February 1784-10 November 1869) was a Major-General of the US Army during the War of 1812, Mexican-American War, and the American Civil War. As commander of the Department of the East when the Civil War broke out, the 77-year-old Wool was the oldest commander in that war.

Biography
John Ellis Wool was born in Newburgh, New York on 20 February 1784, but he moved in with his grandfather in Troy when his parents died. He worked as an attorney prior to the outbreak of the War of 1812, and he was commissioned as a captain in the 13th US Infantry Regiment after volunteering in the US Army. Wool's soldiers repelled a British attack at the Battle of Queenston Heights, leading to the death of British general Isaac Brock, and Wool was wounded in battle. Wool was promoted to Major, fighting at Plattsburgh in 1814. After the war's end, he became a military observer in Europe, and he was promoted to Colonel and Inspector-General of the Army in 1816. During the 1830s, he removed the Cherokee from Georgia and Tennessee, and he was promoted to Brigadier-General in 1841 and given command of the Department of the East in 1847. Wool commanded a division during the Mexican-American War, and he was breveted a Major-General and given command of the US occupation forces in northern Mexico after the war's end. From 1854 to 1857, he commanded the Department of the Pacific, fighting against Native Americans. He returned to command of the Department of the East in 1857, and he commanded the Department at the start of the American Civil War, leading it from 1861 to 1863; John Adams Dix succeeded him in 1863. Wool died in 1869 at the age of 85.